If your exchange-student child will be returning to his or her home high school next year (like Chloe, who is a junior this year), make sure that you're still on the mailing list. Most students have to unenroll from their schools during their exchange year so it's easy to get booted off the list - no sense in sending pertinent school-related things when the kid isn't registered. You may think that the school would never forget that your fabulous child is on this exciting adventure and would, of course, remember that you need to get important information, but, ha! Out of sight, out of mind, and no mail for you. Another reminder that your kid's home world is spinning just fine without him or her.
At the beginning of this school year I asked that I be kept on the list and the secretary had me write a note reminding her of such. At first, I got two of everything that applied to the whole school: one for the parent/guardian of Chloe, and one for Alicia. Because it's hard to prove (or notice) a negative, I wasn't aware for several months that I wasn't getting things from school addressed to the parents of Chloe anymore. After the first few weeks of sorting out new students and old students who've moved and not unenrolled from school, the schools will update their registration lists and the note I wrote on the back of something out of the recycle bin, at the behest of the secretary, must have gotten lost in the shuffle. And there's always the ever-popular catch-all excuse, "moving to a new computer system."
Because Chloe goes to a school that is out of our home district, we have to get a waiver from our district (because state and federal money follows the student to their new district), and then apply for out-of-district admission at the other school. This has always been just a formality, but now there are so many out-of-district students who want to go to the school (even though they have to take a ferry from one of three separate and disparate counties to get to the school), that the school might have to start denying admittance to some kids who don't live on the island, which is the entire school district (there's only one of each school there: elementary, middle, and high school).
The school sends the necessary forms home in January. I get them signed and in the mail the next day. It didn't occur to me that I hadn't received them this year (out of sight . . .) until a friend, a fellow commuter-student parent, reminded me in March. I got that done, but not until later did it occur to me that if Chloe is enrolled in the school next year, it would be a good idea to be registered for some classes. So, I left a message that I'll need to get the registration forms, too. And I'm still not on the mailing list.
There's also the whole SAT business to be concerned with, but I've been remiss in getting that figured out and every time I say the letters S, A, and T in close succession, Chloe plugs her ears and starts singing "lalalalalalalala" and mentions that she's not interested in hearing about real life just quite yet. All I know for sure is that it isn't offered in the summer: the last test date until fall is June 4. I see also that the basic SAT is $41.50. The last time I paid for an SAT (about four or five years ago), it was either $26 or $29.
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Here's a search string I wouldn't have thought would result in hitting this blog:
why is it necessary to peel the skin from the potato before doing osmosis?
I'm afraid I don't have the answer to that. And all this time I've been leaving the skin on before doing osmosis with my potatoes.
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